


Together We Are Better

by Aarvis



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Multi, That's right, Time Travel Fix-It, but what's 1001 more? :), i know that there are like 1000 of these already, i'm that bitch, its a fixit but for naruto and sasukes childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-09-14 22:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16922040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aarvis/pseuds/Aarvis
Summary: AU where Nanadaime Hokage Naruto goes to sleep one night and wakes up years into the past in his ten-year-old body. Time Travel fix-it for my boys' lost childhood.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ya'll, i wrote this strictly for cathartic purposes only. there will be some plot but mostly feelings :')

It’s early morning, the sun has only just risen above the horizon in the east. Birds can be heard warbling faintly in the distance, the sound echoes in his ear. A wave of cool air brushes against his toes sending chills throughout his body. He shivers awake, grasping for a blanket that isn’t there. He reaches up to his face and rubs his tired eyes wearily. He freezes. 

He realizes that he can feel his lashes beneath the pads of his fingertips in his right hand. It’s been years since Naruto was ever able to feel anything in that arm of his, not ever since--

Naruto quickly sits up and looks at his hands. They are smaller than they used to be, his wrists more delicate, his arms less toned. He turns to asses his surroundings. He is sitting in a single bed that he recalls with little fondness as his bed when he was a child.  


This was his childhood apartment.

His heart drops to his stomach. The window by his bed is open. He rushes through it and climbs to the top of the building. He can see Hokage Rock from here. There are only four faces etched into the rock.

This isn’t real, he thinks. 

His hands for the sign to release from a genjutsu, but he can’t call on his chakra properly. 

He always had chakra trouble growing up.

Naruto lays flat on the rooftop, looking up to the sky.

“What the hell is going on!?”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As someone who lived an impossible life, this is bar none one of the most impossible things that has ever happened to him, he thinks.

He tries to recall what he was doing up to the point of him waking up here in what seemingly is the past, but all that he gets is white noise. The more he tries to remember the more he forgets. Frustrated, he throws himself up and scales the side of the building back into his apartment. It’s tiny, tinier than he remembered it. There are clothes hanging from the ceiling, old ramen noodle cups and rank clothes clutter the floor. He steps over everything to the bathroom in the corner of the room. He squeezes himself into that closet of a bathroom and looks in the mirror. 

Everything about him is smaller. His face is softer and squishier. His hair is a bushy blonde wreck, most likely having never seen a brush yet. He was scrawny, with little to no muscle. As he studied himself he was rudely reminded of how much of a runt he used to be. Just how old was he? He gave himself one last scrutinizing look in the mirror before looking for a calendar, he found one hanging crookedly on his wall. 

He was ten years old.

Just two years before he had genin training.

Just two years before his life would change.

He sat back down on his bed and allowed himself a moment of panic. How could he be sure that any of this was real? What if he really was in the past? What if he screws something up? What if he doesn’t ever get back to his real time?

He thought about all the things that were about to happen in a few years time. If it truly was the past, then it wouldn’t be long before he would be paired into Team 7. 

Team 7. His genin team. His precious people.

Images of his team in their genin days spring to his mind. The bell test. The Land of Waves. The Chunin Exams. The Sound Invasion.

Sasuke.

He thought about the suffering that they would all soon go through.

Memories bubbled up to the surface of his conscience, springing tears to his eyes. There was so much adversity to overcome. They each had their own battles to fight with growing up and becoming a ninja, and he would have to repeat it all again. He laughed humorlessly at it all. One of his greatest wishes was that his precious people never would have had to suffer as much as they did. Especially Sasuke.

An sense urgency began to run like cold water down his back. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to go to his best friend. He needed to see him and know that he was okay. But how could he be? His whole clan was taken from him in a single night not but two years ago in this timeline. Nothing that Naruto could say or offer would change that. At this point, they weren’t true friends yet. Years of watching one behind the others back doesn’t really constitute as a friendship.

But Naruto knows Sasuke, probably better than he knows his own self. That fateful encounter with his brother left him with bitterness and resentment. No longer the eager to please younger brother, now only the ‘Last Uchiha’. That night changed Sasuke. It twisted his soul and lead him down a path of turmoil and hate. He is hurting right now and no one will lift a finger for him. 

Whether or not this was real, he could change it. He could change everything. So much is going to happen to them in such a short period of time, and he has a once in a lifetime opportunity to protect his precious people in a way he never thought was possible. Sasuke will never have to leave Konoha. Never have to kill his brother. Never have to live a life of anguish. Neither Sakura or Kakashi will have to live with any guilt over their fourth member’s defection.

Even further forward, there was more to consider. The Akatsuki are already on the move. Soon Jinchuriki’s everywhere would be in danger if they aren’t already being pursued. Nagato’s rage and pain are actively being taken advantage of by Obito and his crusade this very second… and who knows what Madara is up to right about now.

He feels the weight of his quest heavy on his shoulders. Is it even possible to save everyone? A war is coming, and people are going to die. He was just one man, and now, he’s just a child.

But he’s not. Not really. He has his years of training and experience retained in his mind. He has the memories of his past to guide this new future. 

Naruto may not know how he got here, or why he was sent back, but he was not about to let this opportunity pass him by. He never runs away, and never goes back on his word. That’s his ninja way.

He had better start planning then, after all, there was no time like the past to change the present.


	2. Chapter 2

He was sent years into the past, but standing under the weather-worn entrance of the Uchiha Compound Naruto couldn’t escape the feeling that he was still too late. The air is quiet, if not only for the wind and tree branches waving in the breeze. Fringes of red and yellow police tape hang where they fell, surely from the massacre two years ago. The thought makes Naruto’s stomach sour. Where was the Saindame in the aftermath?

Naruto understands why the Saindame left Naruto the way he did. He made a promise to his parents and had a duty to his village. Paired with Naruto’s secret status as a Jinchuriki, it would have put The Hidden Leaf under scrutiny Hiruzen could not afford. In a way he understands. But the apathy shown by Konoha for the children like Sasuke caught in the crossfire of war and bloodshed will never be forgiven in Naruto’s eyes. Thunder can be heard in the distance. 

Thinking of the years was Sasuke alone in the halls where his family was slain spurs Naruto’s feet into movement. An urgency bleeds into his legs and runs as fast as can with his new young feet, feeling ever the scrawny toneless brat he used to be before training. Before becoming a ninja.

By some cosmic accident, Naruto is presented with an opportunity to know Sasuke better than he did before. To be there for him. Through loneliness and pain. His heart clenches at the change to see and meet Sasuke again so young for the first time. All the things he wishes he could tell Sasuke and none of them are right. None of them will make sense to him. He wishes he could organize all his feelings and thoughts in his head so that he could know what he should say first, but it’s muddled and twisted by his anxiety for the importance of this moment. This internal conflict gives him pause. 

He slows his feet just before the steps to Sasuke’s home. The wood of the building's foundation creaks in the air. Cool rain has begun to fall softly overhead. Just as Naruto musters the will to take his first step, a kunai is launched at his feet. Naruto avoids it, but clumsily landing on his ass in the process. 

At the door of the house is a young, carefully blank-faced Sasuke Uchiha.

“You shouldn’t be here.” declares Sasuke, voice monotone.

For moment, all coherent thought became inaccessible to Naruto. Unexpectedly, his eyes became shiny with tears, face completely transparent. Sasuke regarded him, deciding what to make of this confusing yet honest display of emotion. Naruto felt on the spot to say something. Anything. He scrambles up to his feet, muddy and wet from rain.

“Sasuke!” Naruto shouts. Sasuke flinches at the echo of this voice but peers back at him with guarded eyes.

“You don’t know this yet, but I’m your rival. Let’s become strong together! Ok?” Naruto expresses honestly, smiling warmly up at Sasuke.

“Who are you?” Sasuke queries. His eyes still regard Naruto distrustfully, but the curiosity in his voice betrays the apathy he’s projecting. 

“Naruto Uzumaki,” Naruto states, taking the first step on the stairs to hold his hand out to Sasuke. 

“You won’t be alone anymore Sasuke.”

Sasuke stared Naruto dead in the eyes several moments though the drizzle of the rain. Naruto began to get a chill from his wet hair and clothes, but still, he kept his hand outstretched. Sasuke turns away from Naruto.

“You’re going to get sick. Only idiots get sick.”

Sasuke enters his home, leaving the door open behind him.

After several moments, Naruto takes this as an invitation.


End file.
